CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars (PSN) Review
Posted by Mark Salmela on 06.17.2009
A tech-demo turned into a first person shooter? Oh boy!
Title: CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Immersion Games
Genre: First Person Shooter
Players: 1 - 16
Rated: T for Teen
Also available on: Xbox Live Arcade
Originally designed as a tech demo, CellFactor was made into a full game. CellFactor was originally released for free on the PC, but Ubisoft has now ported CellFactor over to the PSN and XBLA at a price of $10.
CellFactor is your basic first person shooter. It plays a lot like Unreal Tournament and obviously drew its inspiration from the Unreal Tournament franchise. Everything looks high-tech and futuristic, and the gameplay is fast and frantic. There are 3 classes to choose from: The Bishop, The Guardian, and the Black-Op. Each class has its own unique abilities and weapons specific to that class.
The Guardian is an absolute brute. He can dual-wield weapons and can use a charged run to smash through opponents. When playing against basic bots the smash move is a one hit kill but against players online you’re going to have to wear them down a little first before going in for the kill. The default pistols that the Guardian starts out with are basically the Halo 1 pistols. They’re perfectly accurate up to any range and they’re unlimited ammo. There’s little to no reason to change to any other gun. Why bother sniping when you have a pistol with perfect accuracy? Just spray and pray.
The Bishop is the equivalent of a magic user in CellFactor. She can use kinetic powers to pick up and throw various objects at enemies. You can charge up the psychokinetic blast and at full blast becomes basically a one hit kill regardless of bot or human player. She can also use guns, but her psychic powers are her specialty. There are a lot of different objects spread throughout the map that can be thrown. Basically anything that’s not nailed down or part of the environment. She can also fly for short distances.
The Black Op is the middle ranged class. He’s stronger than the Bishop and is more agile than the Guardian. He can teleport for short distances which can really mess with the enemy. What appears to be lag is actually just the Black Op teleporting away from gunfire. The Black Op can also use weapons.
The weapons in CellFactor are rather generic. There’s the sniper rifle, the previously mentioned pistols which are perfect in accuracy and unlimited in ammo, there’s a semi-automatic machine gun, there’s a shotgun, and there’s a rocket launcher. But as you may have guessed the only really useful weapons are the shotgun and the default pistols. Considering most people can be killed in about three hits, or one with a headshot than there’s little reason to use anything else.
There is a single player mode, although it’s basically a challenge mode. Each of the three classes has a challenge mode consisting of ten challenges which pits you against a various set amount of bots in training missions. You can improve your skills in these missions and learn various aspects of the game. The training missions are alright, but do get boring after about 5 minutes.
The main focus of CellFactor is the multiplayer mode. Up to 16 people can gather into a match for basic team deathmatch or regular deathmatch. There are also a couple of team based modes in Assault and Capture the Flag. The maps are rather generic and not that large in scale. There are multiple floors in most of the maps and most can be reached by taking advantage of the super jump. The super jump launches player’s dozens of feet in the air. You can get very high up in each level and usually find a respectable sniping position in each one.
As I said before the game is a lot like Unreal Tournament. It’s fast paced and deaths will be frequent. Health does not regenerate and weapons re-spawn from set locations. I didn’t experience any sort of online connectivity issues while playing and there were a decent number of people playing during testing. There are about 8 maps and each one is rather unique from each other but nothing you haven’t seen in other shooters. One of the maps for example looks like a direct rip-off from Halo. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing but something more unique would have helped.
The 411
CellFactor is an experience that would have only worked as a downloadable experience. There isn’t anywhere near enough content to justify a full retail release. There also isn’t anything unique about CellFactor that would warrant a retail release. It’s a poor man’s version of Unreal Tournament. There isn’t anything offensive about CellFactor, it controls decently well, and the online works just fine. The problem is that it doesn’t have any sort of identity. It’s pretty clear that CellFactor is just an attempt to cash in on a tech demo that was lying around that was sort of fun to tinker with. It’s perfectly fine for free, but for $10 it just doesn’t stand up to some of the better efforts out there. It’s pretty much the only downloadable first person shooter on the PSN, but that doesn’t make it good.
Graphics
6.0
Nothing looks offensive, but this is the definition of generic.
Gameplay
7.0
It is Unreal Tournament. With psychokinetic powers.
Sound
6.0
The only saving grace in this department is the announcer. I strive to hear him call me an Arena Master.
Lasting Appeal
4.0
There is no reason to play the single player. Personally I grew bored of the online mode after about 30 minutes, but length may vary.
Fun Factor
6.0
There are bits and pieces of fun to be had, but it really depends on how into Unreal Tournament style shooters you are.
